October 20, 2014: Elder Waini

Elder Weenig's New Address

Marshall Islands Majuro Mission

P.O. Box 1107

Majuro, MH 96960

Marshall Islands

This week I was running in the morning and got bit by a dog, so that was not the highlight of my week. There are dogs everywhere here and the dogs and the children here just wander the streets most of the day. The people here cannot say my last name so they have started nicknaming Elder Waini, which is Marshallese for coconut. It can get hot here and so I am basically sweating all day. Sometimes the mission can be hard but for the most part it is great. We have a lot of investigators and quite a few come up and ask to start meeting with us. However every once in a while you will get some drunk guys who will ask to meet with you. Majority of the time if you show up to their house they will just say they don't want to and their friends laugh at them because they set up a lesson. Luckily in the Marshall Islands people do not reject you, the worst thing people do is say they will meet with you but then not be home. Everyone just makes sure the missionaries are taken care. We were doing a lesson in a member's home with an investigator and the Mom told us that whenever we need food just to come over and she will feed us, anytime we need. Sometimes it is difficult to communicate with my companion, because he has only been speaking English for 10 months. It can be pretty frustrating sometimes especially when he has no idea what I am trying to ask him. Last night Finau and I were teaching one of our investigators, Manny, a 15 year old kid, how to bear his testimony. We also had Jelinda, who is getting baptized next week, and Derick who is a recent convert for 4 months. It was great; we had everyone go around and bear their testimony. I shared these two scriptures: Mosiah 18:9 "Be willing to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, that ye may have Eternal life" 2nd Timothy 1:8 "Be not ashamed to of the testimony of our Lord, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God"I talked about how it is important that you need to share your testimony in order for it to grow and expand. That you cannot be afraid of sharing your feelings and beliefs with others, even if it not the most popular belief. Just be willing to share your testimony whenever you have the opportunity to do so and do not be afraid of what others think. LoveElder Weenig

P.S. I found out that you can order name tags so I will probably get one that says "Elder Waini" and another that says "Elder Sweenig"